Citroen pair scamper through Rally Poland
Abu Dhabi Total WRT Citroen duo of Craig Breen and Stephane Lefebvre enjoyed valuable rally action and experience on their way to a double points finish at Rally Poland.
With the factory Citroen effort taking a sabbatical year away from the World Rally Championship in order to focus its energy on preparing its 2017 challenger, the truncated Abu Dhabi Total WRT racing programme saw both Breen and Lefebvre return to action in Poland for their respective second outings of the campaign.
Lefebvre, who claimed the WRC3 and Junior World crowns in 2014, recovered from crash in SS19 to get home ninth while Breen enjoyed a flawless run to take seventh place.
Having already been out of the WRC championship contention with its shortened programme, both young drivers used it is valuable experience in race conditions building towards Citroen's return next year.
"The result of this rally has exceeded all my expectations," Breen said. "The idea was to try and pick up where we left off in Sweden, but it was nonetheless five months since I last drove this car. I found the rhythm very quickly, setting some encouraging times on the first few stages. We were consistent, avoided making any major mistakes and made it to the end in a good position.
"As regards the standings, we were a little bit stuck in no man's land, with huge gaps to the cars in front and behind. It meant that we could take it easy. I want to thank the team again and everyone who has given me this opportunity.
"I nursed the car back to service [after SS19] and the PH Sport mechanics did a fantastic job to enable us to finish the rally," Lefebvre said. "I think it has been a pretty good rally for us."
